Consumer responses to pictures of co-creating consumers in marketing communications

Abstract

Purpose

Co-creating consumers are often featured prominently in marketing communications for new co-created products. Previous research has only investigated the responses of non-participating consumers by describing co-creating consumers in text. This paper aims to examine consumer responses to combinations of text descriptions and pictures of co-creating consumers.

Design/methodology/approach

An experimental study used a reference group perspective to explain non-participating consumer responses to communications about co-creation with consumers in new product development.

Findings

Pictures of co-creating consumers moderate the effects of texts describing consumer co-creation on brand attitudes. The brand effects of describing the co-creating consumer in text as belonging to a dissociative group are negative when the picture looks similar to the non-participating consumers. If the co-creating consumer looks dissimilar to the in-group, the reference group text has no effect. Self–brand connection mediates these effects on brand attitudes.

Research limitations/implications

A reference group perspective is introduced as a boundary condition to the research on the communication of consumer co-creation. The effects on brand attitudes depend on the pictorial representations.

Practical implications

Companies should be advised to avoid portrayals of co-creating consumers that could cause dissociation in relevant consumer groups.

Originality/value

Neither reference group associations nor pictorial descriptions of co-creating consumers, have hitherto been investigated with regards to consumer co creation, despite the frequent inclusion of consumer imagery in advertising for consumer co-created new products.

Citation

Liljedal, K.T. and Berg, H. (2020), "Consumer responses to pictures of co-creating consumers in marketing communications", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 37 No. 7, pp. 775-784. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCM-12-2019-3544